Walmington on Sea wrote:I very much like the idea of having Britain's sovereign base areas in Cyprus, as the Empire lacks a presence in the eastern Med, but justifying it would be a challenge. My first thought was that Cyprus may have been invaded/settled by Arabs fleeing AMW's more-successful Crusades, before a Greek counter-invasion re-took part of the island and provoked/excused British intervention leading to the creation of bases... but then the Arab part of the island wouldn't have anyone playing it, so that's no good.
Might just have to go with, "Well, no one's applied for Cyprus in years, just take it!"
Alternately, Constantinople could maybe have issued a long-term lease of the base areas to Britain for use by the RN/RAF during the Great War in return for our support in both combat and supply while Byzantium was facing invasion on two fronts.
Anyway, I'm not feeling inclined to oppose the minor expansion, simply because it seems unlikely to matter very much.
Isn't worrying about the sovereign base areas in Cyprus akin to me assuming someone else must control the American military bases in Italy and Spain? Obviously those are fully Roman bases in AMW without foreign ships, planes, or men using them except at a time when permitted to do so by the Empire itself. There's not really a need to split Cyprus like it is IRL or house a foreign military base there. Plus, what advantage do the British have in having a presence in the Eastern Mediterranean? They've no territory there to protect, nor are they reliant upon shipping through the Mediterranean. So, I can understand WoS's concern about justification.
Perhaps, though, maybe there is a lease by the British there and, maybe, that lease is about to expire? Maybe there's an RP angle there? Certainly Rome would make the case to Constantinople that the British were, for lack of a better term, an unnecessary presence in the Mare Nostrum while Constantinople may be more concerned about keeping relations all friendly with the Top Hats. Of course the British would, I assume, consider it a point of pride to have, almost literally, every corner of the world dominated by their military power and the loss of such a base could be seen as a potential weakening of that power. Just spit-balling here. It's one angle. And, perhaps, it might spark just a little activity in a mostly dormant region of the interwebs.
Didn't realize that. The Confederation's North African territories arose from the trading posts and settlements that the Italian maritime republics established in North Africa/South Med. Later they quickly expanded to the rest of the coast and hinterland, settling them and populating them with Italians and assimilating the native population (which in my timeline, will not be Muslim... they might have still maintained the religion of the Vandals/barbarians-whichever-they-may-be and their ilk.)
